



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 







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Counting the Electoral Votes. 



SPEECH 



OF 



HON. CARTER H. HARRISON, 




OF ILLINOIS, 



IX THE 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



January 26, 1877. 




WASHINGK )N. 
1877. 



b.L 









SPEECH 



OF 



IIOX. CARTER II. HARRISON. 



The Ilouse having under consideration the lull (S. >"o. 1153) to provide for and 
regulate the counting of votes for President and Vice-President, and the decision 
of questions arising thereon, for the term commencing March 4, A. I). 1-77— 

Mr. HARRISON said : 

Mr. Speaker : For several months prior to last November, the 
minds of the people of this country were wrought up to intensest 
excitement over the coming presidential election — an excitement, 
however, almost become normal, from its regular recurrence 
every four years. For three years the people had been groaning un- 
der the effects of the financial panic of 1873. Thousands and hun- 
dreds of thousands who had been rich, or thought themselves rich — 
enjoying all the comforts ami luxuries which riches bring — had been 
reduced to the verge of poverty. Thousands had been reduced from 
competency to want. All of these looked to the 7th of November as 
the day when the darkness would be at last dispelled, and the gray 
dawn of prosperity would begin to climb up from the horizon. Thou- 
sands prayed that they might be able to stave off judgment or execu- 
tion until that day. Thousands prayed that they might keep body 
and soul together until that day. 

Nearly all classes believed that the sun of prosperity which had set 
on the 18th day of September, 1873, would arise again on the 7th day 
of November, 1876. Democrats so hoped, because they believed it 
would be the day when a beginning of the change in the management 
of national affairs would be made. Republicans so hoped, because 
they thought it would be the commencement of another four years of 
power, a term they would in the future wield for good. All shades 
of people, partisan and non-partisan, thought it would be an auspi- 
cious day, because thenceforth for four years we would have a settled 
policy, and business men could safely freight their argosies for adven- 
turous voyages. I say all ? It is true there were a few who prophesied, 
that the soldier who ruled over this free Republic, would never per- 
mit a democratic President to be inaugurated. But their forebodings 
were regarded more as the croaking of funeral ravens, than the utter- 
ances of even sagacious owls. 

The people believed that the election would occur on the 7th of 
November, and they never dreamed that it would not be completed 
on that day. They knew that the votes would be counted— must be 
counted. But to them such count was as natural and normal an act 
as the coming out of the stars, when the sun drops behind the curtain 
of the west on a clear and cloudless evening. 

The 7th of November passed; the 8th came. A shout went upfront 
nearly live millions of democratic throats thai Tilden had been elected. 
Conservative republicans breathed freely and a large proportion of 
them were not displeased at the result. But all at once there appeared 



in the political arena a m-v. factoi in presidential elections. Messages 
flashed along the w iry net which spreads over this news-loi ing land, 
and one wordwas the burden of every message. A word already 
known to skilled political manipulators, but to the masses, ye1 un- 
coined. Their simple tongues were uol yel sufficiently twisted for its 
proper pronunciation. A word to-daj as ominous of horrid fancies, 
as that "i cooling-board on which the ghastly cadaver is Laid, ready 
for the dissocting-knife. Returning board! a board on which ballots 
an- laid, ami turned and turned until they take as varied shapes a- do 
hits of colored glass in tin- barrel of a kaleidoscope. A board at which 
a J. M ad i >uii wells can sit and conjure up more easily, dead men's souls 
to fast republican votes, than Hume or any other spiritualist can. <»n 
tables in darkened rooms, call up the ^pirit^ of dear Lady Marys 
to indite loving missives to our embassadorial Pierponts. Wells ; 
euphonious nam< — »> rich, so snggesl Lv< — from thy fathomless depths, 
what oceans of water may flow to wash out tin- name ofTilden from 
in, nun inky ballots ! From thy deep hidden Bources, what floods ot 
mineral fluids, from which that great alchemist Zachariah can precipi- 
tate republican suffrages ! Wells! I have seen thee, Wells! Then 
satests here on this floor the other day, arraigned before the bar of 
the House, and more than two hundred republican eyes looked loving- 
ly upon thy angelic face! What a halo surround' d thy beauteous 
lineaments in the eyes of thy party admirers ! As. in Correggio's won- 
derful picture, the light falls not upon the virgin's child, but emanates 
from it, so to thy friends on the other side of this House, thy face 
beamed with an effulgent light, borrowed from no miserable <>rh set 
in the firmament to give light hy day. but a holy light from within, 
joyous — made tip of no old-fashioned prismatic rays, but with newer 
gleams not yet brought out hy prism, or analyzed hy spectrum; a 
light beauteous, heavenly, republican! 

1 watched my friends on the other side, when that incarnation of 
the Fury 'Hate 1 sat there, and I wondered and wondered: audi felt 
that party prejudice was indeed an inseparable element with the 
right <>f self-government. It was not horn yesterday or the day be- 
fore. William the Silent, who lifted the bottom of the briny deep, 
and transformed it into the home of three millions of freemen. was 

charged by thousands of his countrymen with being the minion of 
the King of France. Olden-Barneveldt's patriotic heart was almost 
broken, because more than half of the free Netherlands believed him 

in the pay of Philip III. Ourown Washington, whom we reverence 
and can scarcely credil with having been fashioned from common 
human i lay. was charged with being corrupt by many of his contem- 
poraries. W'e are all governed by prejudice, and he who thinks him- 
Belf fairest, in fact i> the must prejudiced of all. When a gentleman 
on thai Bide (acknowledged pure and wise) left his s, -at to take by the 

hand that man, whom Louisiana corruption had thrown to the sur- 

faee. I could not help contrasting bis art with the proud words of 
the Douglas, when Marmion offered him his hand: 

Sfycastlea are my king * alone, 
From turret to foundation atone 
The hand of Douglas la his own 
Ami never ahall in friendlj ffraap 
The hand >>f such aa aCaxmion olaap, 

l'rom this side of the House we looked upon that man as the em- 
bodiment of all that i- corrupt in polities. Had some modern Vnlean 

st ruck him on the bead, we would Bcarcely have been surprised if the 

demon of fraud had sprung from under the hammer's blow, armed 



cap-a-pie with rottenness and perjury. We almosl believed that his 
stooping form was bent nndei wagon-loads of perjured affidavits. 
Who are the prejudiced I They on the other side of the House or we 
on this ? 
But, Mr. Speaker, five millions of American voters would have 

looked upon J. Madison Wells as we did. Five millions of men, free 
Americans, believe that that man lias defrauded them out of their 
dearest right, the right of free ballot. These five million men believe 
that when they were so defrauded, free republican institutions received 
a staggering blow : and they demanded of the American Congress that 
it should redress their wrong. They see in it the only protection of 
the liberty won by our forefathers in an eight years' war with the 
proudest of earth's nations. They ask us to make the Union, which 
cost so lately 600,000 human lives and a treasure almost fabulous — to 
make that Union a blessing and not a curse. They ask if Mason 
and Dixon's line was blotted out only that fraud might the more easily 
stalk back and forth over it. Was this the reward of their perils and 
all they got forover two thousand millions of debt ? Sir, are these the 
mutterings of heated imaginations, of partisan prejudice 1 It may 
be so. Bat men die from imaginary diseases, and nations sometimes 
grow insane, and in their insanity they are fearful. All France was 
insane less than a hundred years ago. Human blood was its aliment 
and the fumes of blood its sweetest incense. 

The people appealed to Congress after the Gth of December last for 
redress of evils. One-half of the American people so appealed ; ay, 
more than half. They believed they had been defrauded. They 
asked Congress to see if it were true, and, if true, to correct the evil. 
But all at once they found the fraud could not be corrected, or they 
were told that it could not be corrected: they were told to assume a 
Christian spirit if they have it not, and to be patient, and in four 
years they could themselves get their rights : that no rights had been 
lost; at the very worst they were only in abeyance. Nearly live 
millons of voters* have so appealed to us. Five millions of men of 
convictions, or of deep party prejudices— prejudices as binding upon 
themselves as the deepest convictions. 

On the other hand nearly live millions of men have been taught to 
believe that by the fair and honest vote of the people Mr. Hayes was 
elected; that the people were intimidated at the polls; and that the 
returning boards but corrected existing evils. And these live mill- 
ions of voters are men of convictions, or of party prejudices as bind- 
ing upon themselves, as the deepesl convictions. It would be worse 
than idle, it would be contemptible folly, for either side to assert that 
the live millions of men on the other side were but acting a part; 
that they do not believe what they say. 

I hold, Mr. Speaker, that the great masses of both parties— the 
great masses of the democratic party and the great masses of the 
republican party— honestly believe that their own candidate for 
the presidency was honestly elected. History is full of such honest 
difference of opinion. And* I know too many men on the other side 
of this House : men in whose honor I would trust my dearest _ secret s, 
my most paramount interest; men who would die for principle's 
sake: these men are as earnest as I am, and as honest. I am not 
more certain that yesterday's sun rose, passed across our sky. and 
set at evening than that Mr. Tilden was honestly and fairly elected. 
My friends on this Bide of the House all believe this. Which side 
shall put itself upon the house-top and thank God for not being 
as other men are .' Which side can claim to be free from party prej- 



c 

tidier.-. ai TliI— trying time I Which Bide can claim that its judgment 
is clearer ami less clouded !>y prejudices than is the judgment <>t the 
other Bide I Thai Bide has come Co the belief that J. Mid won Wells 
is an honest citizen, a bold but pure patriot, while we over here be- 
lieve him capable ot any political crime. Ami it is to us. to the 
members of this House and to the members of the Senate, equally 
prejudiced as ourselves, divided as we are — to these two Houses these 
t wo great armies, aggregating nearly ten millions <>f men — these two 
great armies of nearly five millions each, appeal to these two Houst a 
lor righl and justice. 

What is obligatory upon these two Houses 1 < me of the most sol- 
emn duties ever falling to the lot <>i legislators, a duty to do equal 
rights t<> all, wrong to none. The duty to set in motion the machi- 
nery which shall declare who shall he the constitutional ruler of this 
land for the next four years. The duty to declare it. and to declare it 
in such manner that these two greal armies aggregating ten millions of 

men >hall he satisfied with the declaration : shall led satisfied that 

ours is no experimental government to weather through a tour years 1 
voyage, hut in danger each recurring four years of ship \ reck ; satis- 
fied, that they may have an abiding faith that the free Government 
of their fathers shall he tin- free Government of their children and 
of their children's children to far distant ages. 

Mr. Speaker, what evidence has Keen given by the two Houses of 
Congress during the pasl two months that these two great armies 
shall Vie thus satistied ? None, sir; none, I, for my own part, have 
all the time felt an abiding faith that men of both Houses would, 
before it should be too late, rise above party. .Sir. a peaceful and 
satisfactory solution to this quest ion insures to me personally, comfort 
and competency in my journey down the nether .slope of life; any 
other solution will bring tome and mine sure, absolute ruin. Vet, 
sir, with this knowledge I have been cheerful through these pasl 
two months — cheerful because hopeful. Not so the great mass of tin- 
people. 

Sir, acts and deeds speak a people's will far more loudly than their 
words. Watch the path of trade for the past two months, what do 
you Beef Stagnation in every branch. Poverty has become mendi- 
cancy. Stalwart muscle meets you on every Street and in every city, 
and st retches out brawny arms asking for alms. A few months Binoe 
muscle asked for leave to toil, but now it asks for lucid for 90lf, bread 
tm wile, and bread for Starving little ones. Sir. then' are m ore beg- 
gars to he met with in a single day in America than could he met in a 
hundred days in any European land except Italy: and there it is the 
craft which begs— lame, halt, blind, decrepit men. women, and chil- 
dren, whose misfortunt - are t heir /or<«n< s, t heirstock in I rade : t here t he 
stall of t he beggar is his staff of life ; able-bodied men randy are met 
begging anywhere in the ( >ld World. Hut here, how different ! Sit. 

a tew years ago, an American abroad constantly had cause for self- 
gratulation, when he compared the mendicancy of older lands with 
the almost total absence of it in his own favored land. To-day ho can 

do no BUOh thing. Here in Washington one will meet more healthy, 
able-bodied men, women^and children asking alms in a. single day. than 
hi- would meet in Northern Europe in a summer's tour. Mr. speaker, 
there ate to-day probably from a quarter to half a million id' idle men 
in this land: men. idle not from choice, hut because the\ cannot get 
work to do. 

Sir. my remarks up to this time may seem to have no hearing upon 

the question before ;;-. But in my opinion they have great bearing. 



Gnawing bellies do not conduce to cool beads. " Beware of yon lean 
Cassias" was not Caesar's idle word. It sprang from bis knowledge 
of bnnian nature. Paris well fed and full of toil — rewarded toil — 
would never bave given Robespierre to tbe world. Paris drank its till 
of blood, because wine and oil were out of tbe people's reacb. Paris 
bad its carnival of borrors because Paris bad no bread upon its board. 

A political crisis such as is now upon the country, would not be half 
so dangerous to the perpetuity of our institutions, it' we were not also 
struggling under the weight of a financial crisis. Legislators sbould 
look at tbe atmosphere of a country when they make laws. On tbe 
open plains of my own State a thousand Krupp guns fired, lull-charged 
at once, would cause but a harmless vibration in the clear atmosphere. 
Yet a pistol-shot might cause a thousand tons to tumble from one of 
tbe Jungfrau's glaciers. The traveler among Alpine snows is warned 
by his skillful guide to step lightly, to speak with bated breath, for a 
heavy footfall, a quick-spoken word, might cause an avalanche to 
sweep him and bis comrades into hopeless desl ruction. A can of nitro- 
glycerine lay buried for months in a laborer's back yard, yet a few 
days since the stroke of a pick upon the frozen ground, caused tbe con- 
centrated monster to explode, and the owner's body, in tiny quivering 
bits, no piece weighing over five pounds, was gathered iu a hamper- 
basket. 

The people of this land are deeply moved. The mutterings of hu- 
man passion are heard deep and hoarse. Let us tread lightly. Let us 
not go back upon our path of duty, but let us tread the onward path 
firmly but lightly. A few years ago a shot fired off the harbor of a 
southern city, set on tire a train which caused more destruction than 
ever before happened in any four years. 

The gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Garfield] said last night that he 
despised tbe threat of civil war. That was bold language, and lad- 
mire the courage of the speaker. I admired too the pluck of the bull 
when he confronted with his wrinkled brow the oncoming locomo- 
tive ; but his ground-up carcass was not a noble or cheering picture. 
Sir, / am afraid of civil war. It's very name causes me to shudder. 
It may often times be a necessity, but one from which a free people 
should ever recoil. No free people ever came out of one without injury. 
Civil wars in despotisms are often the seeds, the very watering of 
liberty, but never in free lands. Civil war sent Tarquin to bis doom 
and made Rome free. Civil war sent liberty to its tomb and gave 
Rome her Caesar. Civil war broke forever the power of the tyrant iu 
the Escurial and gave to watery Holland a free republic ; but civil 
war gave to France her Napoleon. Civil war gave to America our 
own grand Republic — let us be on our guard lest civil war may 
change the name of President into Imperator. 

Mr. Speaker, after the meetings of the electors on the 6th of De- 
cember last, a new and, as far as the masses of our people understood 
the question, a strange and novel difficulty arose. The people bad 
thought that when the election was over on the night of the ?th of 
November the thing was finished. They thought that tbe count of 
the electoral vote was a simple problem ; as simple as tbe counting 
by the bank-teller of their daily savings brought to the bank's counter. 
Who among our forty-live millions of people ever dreamed that a new 
demon of discord would spring upon the political arena ? Not one 
in a thousand : nay, not one probably in ten thousand. 

It is true this question was one of deep interest seventy-seven years 
ago. But it had passed from men's memory. In the year 1800 the 
Congress of the United States had attempted to solve the problem as 



s 

iral votes should be counted. Bui the people had an 
idea Unit the counting of these votes was a simple matter of addi- 
tion. Ami when the win- carried from Washington the news thai 
the Senate and House of Representatives were disputing as to the 
method to be adopted, demands came pouring in upon as from cities 
and from towns — from hamlets and from farm-honses — demands that 
we should count the votes in accordance with time-honored custom, 
that we should count the votes as <>nr fathers had counted them. 
Wires ami mails carried hack from Senators and from Members 

of this House, assurances to Cities and to town- — to hamlets and 

to farm-honses, that we would count the votes a- our father.-, hail 
counted them, that we would count the votes in accordance with 
time-honored custom. But how had our fathers counted the votes! 
What was the time honored custom I Men of both branches of Con- 
gress mounted upon party platforms, ami. chameleon-like, they took 
the color of the planks on which tiny were standing. Party and 
party prejudice again became the prominent factors in the solution 
of the <^reat and absorbing question. 

sir. 1 know I am a partisan. lint I feed in my innermost heart that 
party and party prejudice are not clouding my judgment. Von. Mr. 
Speaker, think tin- same of yourself. The gentlemen on the other 
side of this floor think the same. Opinion crystallizes itself , as do two 
metallic BUbstances held in solution by a subtle Quid when the pole 
of a battery is inserted into it. or when some chemical is dropped in 
it : one metal goes to one side of the glass and takes its own peculiar 
shape, its angles are fixed and defined : the other met a 1 recedes to the 
opposite Bide of the class and assumes its ou'n peculiar forms, with 
angles fixed and defined. Each crystal is so exact that the practiced 
eye of the metallurgist, need lookbul once to know the name and 

pro pert ies of each separated metal. 

Party prejudice- precipitated the soluble into the insoluble, the 
undefined into certain and solid. One set of men said the President 
of the Senate has decided this question regularly since 1787 ; audit 
was believed such solution would insure the election of Governor 
Hayes. Sir, was the result wished, the cause of the solution adopted) 

It is not for me to decide. What right have I to dive into men's 

consciences and to assert that they are not as honest ;in 1 .' Honiaoit 
ijui mdl ;i ]i< urn .' 

Anion- those who so hold, some said the President of the Senate 
could only count the votes ministerially ; others said be had the right 
to weigh, to scrutinize, to decide which certificates should be received, 
which refused : another set of men said Congress had the sole right, 

and it was it- -oh- duty to count the V0te8, and that Congn SS had reg- 
ularly done -o since 17-7. 

And the-e men again differed among themselves : one set said the 
act of counting was an affirmative act of both Houses acting a- one 
body : another that it was an affirmative act of the two Houses act- 
ing as separate bodies j that it required the acquiescence of each 

HoUSe he tore a Vote could he counted. Another that, acting as sepa- 

i ate bodies, ii required the joinl act of the two bodies to reject a vote. 

One set said that the two Houses, whether acting as one body or as 

separate bodies, had no righl to go behind the certificates coming 

from tree and sovereign states. Another sel said that the two Houses, 
either acting as one bodj or acting as separate bodies, bad the right, 

and it was their duty, to go behind the certificates and examine and 
determine <tiiniiti< it the vote- contained in the certificates wcie Un- 
true VOteB Of the people of -ovclei-'l free Slate-. 



9 

One sit held firmly that the whole decision of the vote as to the 
President belonged to the House of Representatives: and the whole 
decision as to the vote for Vice-President belonged to the Senate. 
This last position would insure the election of Governor Tilden, either 

by the electoral vote or would send it to the House, when, he would 
certainly be elected. Was the result wished for, the reason of the as- 
sumption ? Who on the other side of this House shall say such was 
the fact ? What right have they to dive into other men's consciences 
and to assert that gentlemen on this side of the House are not as hon- 
est as they? Honi soit qui malypense. The country at last found 
that men's opinions were thus divided and the people became fear- 
fully alarmed. " What," they asked, " will be the result ? Are we to 
have fraud count in a President; shall fraud prevent the counting in 
a President ? If so, free government, the very foundation of which 
is a free ballot, will be lost. Even if no immediate evil result from 
the thing, the worm will have entered the root of the great tree, and 
rottenness and death will surely ensue." 

"But worse than that the composition of the two Houses of Congress 
is such that one House will adopt one view, the other House the 
other view of the question. The Senate through its President will 
declare Mr. Hayes President, and the present incumbent of the presi- 
dential chair will recognize the Senate's choice and will hand over 
to him the paraphernalia, all the insignia of office. The great heads 
of the Executive Departments of the Government will recognize him 
as the President. The Army through its geuerals will recognize him 
as the President. He will be thus a de facto President, and recog- 
nized by the Senate and by the republican party as the de jure Presi- 
dent. The House of Representatives performing its sworn duty, its 
solemn sworn duty, will proceed to elect and declare Mr. Tilden tho 
President of the United States. He will be by them and by the dem- 
ocratic party recognized as the de jure President, and then what V 

Mr. Speaker, I, too, ask, " then what ?" Nor I, nor you can answer 
that question. No man lives who can answer that question. Xo man 
is so gifted with prescience or so cursed by foresight as to be able to 
answer that question. To be able to look into the abysm of woe 
which might be the result of this state of affairs would indeed be a 
curse. So long as the thing should remain uncertain there would be 
hope ; but could the patriot see clearly the result, hope might depart 
forever. 

This brings me to that stage of my remarks when it may be proper 
for me to say something of the legal aspects of the case as they pre- 
sent themselves to my mind. The Constitution says: 

The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of 
Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted. 

Mark the words — " all the certificates.'' This very language shows 
the framers of the Constitution did not intend that the President of 
the Senate should decide which were the true certificates; but he 
shall open them all, spurious as well as true. For otherwise they 
would have said open the certificates, using the definite article, mak- 
inghim the judge as to which were the certificates and which were not 
the certificates ; or they would have said open the true certificates, or 
the proper certificates, or the certified certificates. But it says no such 

thing, hut open all the certificates. Be has received various papers 

purporting to be certificates. They have been in his hands for safe- 
keeping, he being an officer in continuous existence. He must keep 
them under seal until he finds himself in the presence of the two 
Houses, for the Constitution says he shall then open them, which 



10 

means lie shall not open them until in such presence. He there- 
fore cannot know until In- does so open them which arc the true ami 

which arc false certificates. He has received papers sealed up as 
ordered by the Constitution. He knows nothing of what those seals 
cover except that they were given him hymen representing them- 
selves as messengers from electors of States, or that they were sent 
him by certain officers of the States, as the case may be. His duty is 
to open them. Of that t here is no douht. That he should open every 

scaled package purporting to be certificates there can, 1 think, he no 
donbt. '1'hcn what 1 

The vote shall he counted — hy whomi By the President of the 
Senate .' Surely nor. It is hard for me to believe that any one not 
carried away by partisanship should claim that he should count. I 

say it is hard to believe t his, yet what right have 1 to dive into men's 
consciences? But let us examine the structure of the sentence, ex- 
amine it as Saxon English — as plain English. 

There is a genera] acknowledgment. Mr. speaker, that the framers 
of the American Constitution wrote not only (rood English but ex- 
ceedingly terse English. They discarded verbiage. They said as 
much as possible in the fewest words. Now, had they intended the 
President of the Senate Bhould count the votes would they not have 
said so.' See how simple the change in the construction of the sen- 
tence would be to devolve this high duty upon this officer: " *lmll,in 

the presence of the Senate and Hoit8( of Representatives open all tin cer- 
tificates and then count tin votes." Four words would have made the 
thing certain, but they used six words — "the votes shall then he 
counted:" or they might have used the same phraseology and hy add- 
ing two words would have made the thing certain—" t lie votes shall 
then be counted by him." But they did not so write. They changed the 
whole structure in the two members of the sentence. They command 
actively that he shall "open,' 1 ami then say passively the votes shall 
be counted. The known rule of construction is expressio unius, exclusio 
alterius. The expression of one duty is the exclusion of any other 
duty. He shall open means he shall not count. 

The learned gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Sr.r.i vi: ] says it 
is monstrous to suppose that the framers of the Constitution should 
have placed this dangerous power to count the votes in the hands of 
a partisan House, instead of in the hands of one responsible man, 
the President of the Senate: that it is always safer to lodge such 
power in one man's hands than in the hands of many. Every now 

and then, some politician, in the course of our history, has declared 

some pow.r of the Constitution monstrous, and yet time and the peo- 
ple have made pure and refined the frightful monstrosity. 

Montesquieu says the absolute government of one ijood man is Ear 
more beneticient than the government of many. But w hen that abso- 
lute ruler happens to he not good, then the one man is a tyrant. All 

along the page of history is found the ruin caused hy the rule of ouo 
man. and that man. too. a responsible man ; for it is upon that word the 
learned professor dwells. Cromwell was responsible; Napoleon 1 

and Napoleon in were both responsible to the people. No, sir, safety 
Lies ever among the multitude; wisdom not alw ays. Wisdom maj lie 

often with one, hut when that one happens to lie had, all is lost. 

Wells was master of the returning board in Louisiana. Be was re- 
sponsible to his State. Were his acts pare •' 

Hi it, Mr. speaker, w here docs the power lie ? My own belief is that the 

framers of t he ('oust it ut ion left t he manner of counting to the law- 
making power. Thej wise! 3 lefl it with it. In the shifting changes 



11 

of events, a constitution without any elasticity would be an utter 
obstruction. One manner of counting maybe wise at one time, at 
another ruinous. It was the <luty of the law-makers of the land to 
enact a law to carry into operation that member of this sentence 
which is the great bone of contention, " The votes shall then be 
counted." How ? Why, as the Congress of the United States shall 
determine by law. Up till now Congress has made such law by 
joint resolution ; resolution for the time being having the force of 
law. Up till now, the thing has worked so smoothly, that Congress 
has contented itself with temporary plans. Article 1, section 8, says 
Congress shall have power — 

To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execu- 
tion powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States 
or in any department or officer thereof. 

Now, sir, all through the Constitution are powers and mandates, 
which do not, cannot in themselves, be put into execution, but which 
laws do put into execution. 

Article 1, section 11, says: 

The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every sec- 
ond year by the people of the States. 

And section 4 say : 

The time, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representa- 
tives, shall be proscribed in each State by the Legislature thereof ; but the Congress 
may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, &c. 

Now, suppose the Legislatures'of States fail to make such prescrip- 
tion and Congress fails to make any law on the subject, what will be 
the result ? Does any one, will any one, claim that the people of a dis- 
trict shall meet and choose their Representatives without such law ? 
Surely not ; and yet Government cannot be run without the House of 
Representatives. 

Article 1, section 3, says : 

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each 
State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, &C. 

Suppose the Legislatures do not choose such Senators. Can they 
be chosen by the people of the States even if they should meet en 
masse on some grand plain ? Surely not ; and yet the States would 
be defrauded of their rights if they have not Senators. But gentle- 
men tell us that the people must have the President of their choice 
or they will be defrauded. True. But then the people should see 
that they do through their representatives make the needful laws. 

The Constitution says "the electors shall meet in their respective 
States and rote by ballot," &c, for a President. But suppose the 
electors fail to meet in their respective States and vote, &c. ? Does any 
one claim or can any one claim that the voice of the people can be 
heard or heeded except through their electors ? Surely not ; aud yet 
if their electors fail so to meet and vote the people would be defrauded. 
Again, suppose the people of a State vote for certain electors with the 
expectation that such electors will vote for a certain man for Presi- 
dent, and instead of voting for that man the electors should vote for 
some other man. Would not the people be defrauded ? And yet the 
electors surely have the constitutional right to vote for whom they 
please, provided the man so voted for be not one of the prohibited 
persons. And if a majority of all the electors should conspire and 
vote for another than the one the people had in their minds when 
they choose such electors, would not the man so elected be constitu- 
tionally elected? Yet the people would bo defrauded. 



12 

But we are b Id that the Constitation is imt an unmeaning instru- 
ment, ami when it said the votes shall be counted it carried within 
If the means for such count : and, a> the two Houses may fail to 
agree, therefore, some hold, that the President of the Senate must do 
the counting; otherwise the whole mandate Calls to the ground. And 
others -ay the two Houses may not agree, and therefore one House 
must have within itself the power t>> put the Constitution into effi 
otherwise the mandate "the votes shall be counted" falls to the 
and, and that could not be. 

Now I (h> not assert positively, Mr. Speaker, but with the lights now 
before me I hold that the Constitution requires a law to put this clause 
into effect. And Buch law this bill is. If the whole thing rests with 
the two Houses without any law defining the mode, then I would 
rather conclude that the two Houses meet ami vote per capita, ami by 
analogy their vote should then be recorded as States, bo a- to carry 
nut thf idea <>t' State autonomy. If there be no election tor want of 
a majority of all tin- delegates appointed, then this House elects, vot- 
ing by states. The electors arc- as many as the members of the two 
Houses, and if there be no law to fix the mode of counting, then the 
joint convention would carry out the spirit of the twelfth amendment 
by examining into tin- votes as a joint convention, and giving their 
votes as States. This I merely throw out. It has qo bearing upon 
the question. 

I. <t us look a little further into the Constitution and Bee whether 
my theory be not true, that the framersof tin' Constitution intended 
that a law should bo made to enable the electoral vote to be counted. 

Of course, I reason by analogy. Article 1. section 7. says "allbtUs 
for raising revenue shall originate in iht ll<ni-< of Bepresentatiti 
Now, suppose the 11 i.u-i- tail BO to originate bills .' Is not this an ob- 
ligatory mandate. Yet if it be not done the wheels of Government 
would he stopped. The bill could not originate it -elf. any more than 
tlie \ote could count itself, and the executive department could not 
collect revenue without such bills. 

Article :'.. section 1, says : 

The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and 
in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. 

Now, if Congress fail to establish inferior courts, the people would 
be without justice. Vet the Supreme Court could not establish infe- 
rior courts Of its own motion. 

Mr. Speaker, 1 think 1 have shown by analogy that the intention 

of the Constitution is that Congress shall determine by law how the 

i total vote shall be counted. The bill now under consideration is 

such a law. It is m>t precisely the bill I would have framed or would 
approi e it it were iii my power to make and pass any other bill of a 
like nature. But the lull is before as. It is fair to all. It does not 
in itself do wrong to any. What may lie the result of its working 

upon the aspirations of the two distinguished candidates for the 

Presidency I cannot tell. And that is. to my mind, its very b 
Feature. It is in the interest of neither party. It constitutes a tri- 
bunal to weigh all the knotty questions surrounding and involved in 
the counting of the electoral votes. 

The tribunal will l.e fair and honest. If I should think otherwise 
I should sa\ republicanism was a failure, [fwecannol trust the live 
great jurists who will sit with the five members from this House and 
the five members from the Senate— men who will have the eyes of 
t heir Cellow-citizens upon them, forty-five millions in number ; men 



13 

who will have the eyes of all the civilized world upon them : men 
who will have the eyes of untold millions yet unborn upon them ; 
men whose acts will be weighed in historic scales, whose actions will go 
into the crucible of fiercest criticism — it' we cannot trust these men, 
then let us be meu ourselves, and let us, as men, hold and honest, de- 
clare that free republican government is au illusion, a snare, and a 
cheat. If we cannot trust these men so situated, acting under a sol- 
emn duty and under a sacred oath, let us say to America, "Wrap the 
drapery of thy mantle around thee and die as one who has had a glo- 
rious day, but whose day has come to an end." 



